Rameez Makhdoomi
On third day of Eid ul Fitr , July 8 , 2016, when whole Kashmir was busy with festivity the evening came with a news that would go on to alter the entire situational paradigm of Kashmir ; Hizbul Mujahedeen Commander and widely popular militant Burhan Wani was killed along with his associates in an encounter with security forces at picturesque resort of Kokernag in South Kashmir. Since then protests, killings, pellet injuries, blinding and continuous shutdown for over hundred days has defined life in Kashmir and the valley has been turned into war zone.
In between, the pellet blinded people and the dead eye of victims have defined the tyranny faced by people of Kashmir .The killing of young children in forces action has given rise to enormous outrage. Insha Mushtaq, the 14-year-old who lost her both eyes when she was fired with pellets by state forces at Sedow Shopian emerged as the poster girl for Kashmiris protesting against pellet injuries caused by pellet firing over the last three months.
Arrests, detentions have been the only response to calm down tempers as Public Safety Act has been profusely used to scuttle dissent. Communication gag has also been implemented over this period.
As a matter of fact, On the other hand, a day after Wani’s death, former Chief Minister of state Omar Abdullah said that his killing had made him the new icon of the disaffected section of the Kashmiri society and further warned that more Kashmiris will join the militancy after his death as compared to when he was alive.
Yasir Zargar, a columnist reflecting on the hundred day volatile situation in Kashmir states states – “The current uprising or what we call the2016 intifada has returned to the streets of Kashmir. Its third time since this type of uprising took place on the streets, across villages in Kashmir. The 2016 uprising marks its deep roots in the hearts of Kashmiri’s which somehow makes sense that the people of Kashmir have had been oppressed since along. The current intifada almost completed three months and it may go long. In these days people came out on streets to cull de sac with a slogan that they want freedom from Indian occupation. The Indian state forces who are responsible for gross human rights violation have continued their occupation by maiming a thousand youths by hitting them in their eyes. They killed a hundred young men and women who took part in an agitation by protesting against them. They are curbing down the clamor of slogans but unfortunately that echoes out from the walls and reverberates making the voice clear that the people stand for the freedom which is their basic right and unfortunately not given to them. They stand for those young boys who have had been killed in cold blood, they stand for those young people who lost their eye sight. If India continues to treat the voices of Kashmir as filthy disdain and exploiting the sentiments by giving a name as “Pakistan back sponsored” then the time would come near soon and the ground would witness chaos. It’s clear that they haven’t yet understood that it’s not either Pak sponsored nor Hurriyat sponsored but this agitation has links with the unsettled dispute. This ire among people should make sense that people have always been stood for the cause of freedom. They may call it perversion but honestly speaking that they have to swig it. There is a renewed spirit among Kashmiris. We now believe more than ever that Azadi is our destiny.”
In nutshell, killings, shutdowns, curfew, internet gag, mobile gag, pellet victims, funerals, arrests, detentions have defined the life in Kashmir in past 100 days in Kashmir.
